A Life of Community Service
Betty, a resident of Kubirri Aged Care Centre (“Kubirri”) has lived an extraordinary and inspiring life. From volunteering with the Red Cross as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (“VAD”) in her youth, to forming a guard of honour for Queen Elizabeth II, to being a President of the Diabetes Australia Coffs Harbour branch, there’s plenty for Betty to be proud of and plenty of knowledge she has to impart. For Betty however, she reflects that the most important life lesson is that of giving back. “Look after your community, that’s the main thing,” she says. “Do what you can for your community, because it’s worth it.”
Betty has been at Kubirri for approximately two and a half years, noting, “I love every minute of it. It is absolutely beautiful; they can’t do enough for you.” Betty was born in Coffs Harbour and says that her first taste of community work was when she was 16. “I was 16 when I joined the VAD, which was the Red Cross, and we did volunteer work at the hospital. I used to go up to the hospital and do shifts.” This volunteer work even led Betty to have a chance encounter with the then reigning Queen Elizabeth II in 1954. “When the Queen came out to Lismore, the VAD formed a guard of honour for her, we got a really close look. She was beautiful,” Betty recalls.
In her later adult years eventually became the President of the Diabetes Australia Coffs Harbour branch, where she raised money for diabetes and held monthly meetings, recalling that the branch got top branch in the state, three years in a row. Betty has been a diabetic for over 65 years and so this cause was close to her heart.
In fact, it was Betty’s community-minded persona that connected Betty and her husband Boyd. Betty recalls, “I met my husband through being in the church. I was in a church society, and we went over to Kyogle for a weekend, and I happened to be billeted at his place. From then on, I got a wonderful husband out of it, and we had 65 years together.”
“Boyd was the same as me, we liked to do something for the community, whatever we could do to help the community. We were very community minded,” she says. “When Betty and Boyd later moved to Atherton, she notes that they both did voluntary work for the Atherton Information Centre, where Boyd served for 20 years, and Betty served for 17. “Boyd and I also formed three branches of the National Servicemen’s Association; one in Cairns, one in Innisfail and one in the Tablelands and they’re still going, and I am a life member of the National Servicemen’s Association.”
When reflecting on her life’s fondest memories, Betty recalls, it is indeed her family. “My marriage of course, to a wonderful husband,” she says. “I had a lovely marriage and my two children; when they were born, they were marvellous too!” Whilst Betty’s son sadly passed away at age 55, she cites her daughter, also a resident of Mossman and only a short drive from the Centre, as one of her inspirations. “She’s absolutely marvellous. She can’t do enough for me. She’s just so smiley, she’s always smiling.”
